Magic hold off Rockets

HOUSTON (Ticker) - The Orlando Magic were able to keep Yao Ming
in check just long enough and Magic guard Jameer Nelson got his
team's running game going in the second quarter to spark a 97-92
victory over the houston Rockets on Wednesday night at the
Toyota Center.

Yao scored nine points in the first quarter, but none in the
second when Orlando began double teaming him. He finished the
game with 19 points and a season high 17 rebounds.

Tracy McGrady played only the first half for Houston, leaving
the game with a sore left knee that has bothered him for the
last couple of weeks. McGrady scored only three points, shooting
1-for-10 from the field in 18 minutes.

"I didn't think he was moving good at all," Rockets coach Rick
Adelman said. "In the last six minutes (of the first half) there
was no way he way he was going to play with the way he was
playing, so we decided to shut him down. I have no idea where we
go from here. He practiced a little bit (Tuesday) and it didn't
seem to be any better today, so I'll have to listen to what the
medical staff says."

"Playing on one leg like that, you're putting so much pressure
on the leg that feels good there's a chance you can injure that
leg," McGrady said. "It's the same thing. My knee has been
bothering me for two weeks. I thought I'd give it a go. I
obviously wasn't myself out there. I did more hurting my team
than anything."

Although Yao's final numbers looked good, he scored only two
points total in the second and third quarters and got most of
his points in the fourth off of offensive rebounds and free
throws.

"In the second quarter he was still trying to score," Orlando
coach Stan Van Gundy said. "Yao is very patient and poised and
he began making passes to cutters. He's a great, great player."

The Magic played Yao man-to-man sometimes in the second half
with Dwight Howard, who ended up with 21 points and 11 rebounds,
taking the assignment. "We gave him a couple of looks and the
big fella (Howard) did a great job on him," Nelson said.

"It's a good matchup," Howard said of playing against Yao. "I
thought I did a better job (after the first quarter) of not
letting him get to the middle and making him shoot fadeaways
instead of him getting in a good rhythm of shooting the ball."

Houston led 22-11 late in the first quarter, then the game
turned in the second. The Magic shut down Yao and got their
fastbreak going.

"We got 18 fastbreak points," Van Gundy said. "The plan was to
come out running from the beginning. But we couldn't stop them
or get a rebound."

Nelson generated a 15-0 run midway through the second quarter
that turned a 37-27 deficit into a 42-37 Orlando lead. The Magic
never trailed again.

"We did a good job of executing and making good decisions," said
Nelson, who contributed 11 points and six assists. "That's what
the good teams do, and that's what we haven't been doing."

Houston managed only one field goal in the last 7 1/2 minutes of
the first half, a 3-pointer by Shane Battier.

Orlando won despite shooting only 41 percent the field. The
Magic held the Rockets to 34 percent shooting.

"This was one of my favorite games of the year," Van Gundy said.
"We played extremely hard. Can we win a game shooting in the
30s? If you're going to be good, you've got to be able to win
one of these games."

"We needed to win this type of game, a grind it out game," said
Orlando guard Keyon Dooling, who provided a spark off the bench
with 15 points. "We've got to pick it up on the road, we've been
so terrible at home."

The Magic won their 13th road game against only four losses.
Orlando is 5-5 at home.

"We've got to find a way to bring that kind of intensity to our
homecourt," Van Gundy said.

Orlando's Rashard Lewis, bothered by a bad neck, still played 37
minutes and added 13 points.

"I can't turn my head to the right," said Lewis, playing in his
hometown. "I'm going to have a MRI (Thursday)." Adelman figured
he needed a shot doctor.

"If you look at the stat sheet from the first half, we defended
them well, we had 17 offensive rebounds and 22 assists," he
said. "We did the whole thing, but we couldn't make a shot. It
seemed like it just went through the whole team."

Houston point guard Rafer Alston, who had missed three of the
last four games with a groin injury, returned to score 17
points.